The 30 Under 30

Who is reinventing the world? Who should you hire today? Who will you be working for in 20 years? Who, in short, under the age of 30, matters?

Those are the questions we asked Forbes readers and 12 star-studded panels of industry experts as we compiled our first ever “30 Under 30” listing of tomorrow’s brightest stars. From those thousands of nominations our staff reporters worked overtime to cull the list to the 360 ultra impressive up-and-comers listed here.

Some, Pete Cashmore, the CEO of the tech news site Mashable and Mac Miller, the 19-year-old rapper from Pittsburgh are already well-known. Others like Danielle Fong, a Canadian-born science prodigy who entered a Princeton Ph.D. program at age 17 before founding alternative energy company LightSail at 20, are just getting their first taste of the limelight. But it is nearly certain that we will all be hearing much more from them in the decades to come.

Here, on the web, you will find descriptions of each 30 under 30 member and, if you want to learn more, quick links to their LinkedIn profiles, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. For the January 16th issue of Forbes magazine, we are printing a portfolio of stunning photographs, crafted by legendary lensman Harry Benson (famous for, among other things, his snaps of the Beatles), of a few of the standouts among this elite group. Those lucky few include Community actor Donald Glover (a.k.a. rapper Childish Gambino), Wall Street hotshot Vlad Khandros from UBS and Ronan Farrow, a precocious humanitarian activist who just happens to be the only biological child of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow.

As part of the fun, I also sat down and filmed videos with everyone who Benson shot. My conversation with Donald Glover is below. And, no, I don’t normally look half that sharp. My wardrobe was provided by Verdi & Kennedy, which sells Italian “artisan-quality clothing” from its Manhattan boutique.